According to AT&T Mobility President & CEO Ralph de la Vega, the popular phone carrier is planning to roll out wi-fi calling capabilities next year.
Last week, at a special media event, Apple announced that their new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will support wi-fi calling. However, at the time of that announcement, T-Mobile was the only company listed as a provider of the service.
Wi-fi calling will allow users to seamlessly transition between LTE cellular networks and localized wi-fi networks, ultimately cutting down on 4G data use.
At the moment, some customers are concerned that AT&T will be able to come through on their promise of seamless transitions. The company still doesn’t offer voice-over-LTE (VoLTE), and the transition between standard calls and wi-fi calls tends to result in dropped service. However, VoLTE is said to be on its way, at which point AT&T is prepared to launch wi-fi calling as a public feature.
According to a report by CNET, de la Vega also told reporters that the company already feels confident in their coverage service, and that AT&T doesn’t have any “burning desire” to compensate for coverage issues via a wi-fi calling service. Whether this is true, or whether AT&T simply doesn’t want to not fall behind T-Mobile, is unclear.
Once again, wi-fi calling will be available through AT&T and T-Mobile, with AT&T’s service coming out in 2015. Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will both support the new service.
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